Saturday, November 14, 2009

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – On a Homecoming day full of emotion, the ETSU men’s basketball team made the plays it needed to make in the final minutes to outlast rival Appalachian State 62-58 in the 2009-10 season opener Saturday afternoon inside Memorial Center.

In a game that began with a memorial service for former ETSU center Seth Coy (Washington, Ind.), who tragically died in a car accident last summer, the Buccaneers were the recipients of a fortuitous intentional foul call with a minute left in regulation and capitalized at the foul line with five makes in six tries to pick up the victory. A crowd of 5,562 fans looked on as sophomore guard Adam Sollazzo (Tampa, Fla.) – who roomed with Coy and now wears his No. 43 jersey – hit two of those free tosses with 16.2 seconds left to help ice the game.

“I am so proud of our team right now,” said ETSU head coach Murry Bartow, whose team is beginning a stretch of five games in 11 days to open the season. “This was an incredibly emotional day with Seth’s Mom and all the family and friends who came down from Indiana. To win with our best player (Mike Smith) nursing an injury and only playing 10 minutes, and to have our starters only score 21 points – I don’t know that that’s ever happened in my career.”

Prior to the game, over 50 people from Coy’s hometown were on the Memorial Center floor, and Bartow presented his mother with a framed jersey. Those emotions seemed to wear on both the Bucs and Mountaineers, who struggled to find an offensive rhythm in the first half.

In the first 20 minutes of play, the Bucs shot just 34 percent from the field and ASU hit on just 41 percent. At the intermission, it was tied 27-27 and the two teams had combined for 21 turnovers (13 for Appalachian and eight for the ETSU).